Viability of a Wraithknight army?

[General Strike]

I was looking into making a Craftworld Wraithknight army, similiar to a Imperial Knight army. What Craftworld would work best, and what loadouts? I should mention this will be at 2k points.

[Karhedron]

Short answer: No

 

Longer answer: Still no.

 

The problem is that the Wraithknight is overcosted compared to the Imperial Knight but about 100 points. If you are running 4 or 5 of them, that equates to fighting with around 25% less of an army than your opponent. Add to that the fact that Imperial Knights are considered one of the weakest factions (at least until their Codex arrives) and you have a problem that is not easily solved.

 

Having said all that, if you really want to go for it then one place to look is Forgeworld. Some of their Wraithknights have the ability to enter play from Reserves which at least means if you don't get the first turn, they can't be alpha'ed off the board. Alaitoc, Ulthwé and Iyanden traits all offer some value to Wraithknights by either increasing their durability or preventing them from degrading so quickly.

 

The Suncannon is the worst of the lot and should be discarded out of hand. It costs more than a RFBC for a worse profile. Heavy Wraithcannons provide a modicum of long-ranged anti-tank while scatter lasers will help a bit against hordes. The Sword/Shield version is cheaper and can do some good damage in close combat against large/tough targets while getting a badly-needed invulnerable save. Shuricannons are worth taking on the Sword/Shield Knight as they are Assault meaning you can still fire if you Advance (something that is quite likely with this build).

 

Support is going to be vital for Wraithknights. Access to Psychic buffs is about the only thing they have going for them so you may as well maximise it. A supreme command detachment containing a Farseer or two as well as a Spiritseer and possibly a Bonesinger will help.

 

Overall I think such an army would only be playable in casual games. Against any kind of competitive list, you will struggle.

[chapter master 454]

In terms of Craftworlds, I would certainly lean towards ether Ulthwé or Iyanden. Alaitoc is powerful but your models are so large (and consider you will have somewhere about 3-4 of these hulking machines) that getting within 12" is likely to occur at critical points and in all considerations your biggest weakness will be Melta weapons with lascannons and the like still being annoying but are not as deadly (this is because meltas once in range tend towards 5 or more damage per their 2D6 pick the highest. Quite interesting actually, the average is 4.47 however the mode is 6 followed by the median being 5). This thus puts more want towards improving their defence versus these huge chunkers.

 

Iyanden helps making it so they need to put you to 25% of your wound count to start shaking and 10% of your wounds to get you thinking it time to quit. This is massive as it does mean they stay fighting far longer and they even have I believe relics that help wraith-units.

 

Ulthwé is a multiplier faction where the more wounds you have the better it gets. So if you want to make your knights gain 16.67% more wounds (which for simple maths considering they have 24 equals an extra 4 wounds being kept so effective wound count is 28 instead of 24 and thus over 3-4 knights that's 12-16 more wounds to deal with).

 

If it were me, I would go with Iyanden. In effect the extra 4 wounds from Ulthwé won't do much, I tend to enjoy it on smaller units in my armies as it adds some annoying resilience to softer units and cushions hits. Especially effective on Wave serpents with their wave shield. In the case however of having only 3-4 knights, it won't be hard to burn through those extra wounds and even then they could happen at any given stage of the game, like when you may already be at stage 3 or they could not happen at all. Iyanden will give you certainty as now your knights have in effect double the wound count in terms of stages and that is what kills tanks and big units. Now they have to burn through an extra 6 (so 18 wounds) to get you to stage 2 which is a tall order to do over multiple targets.

It also means that even when they have been smashed hard, you can be confident unless they put it to deaths door it will still hit hard! (and note, they have to put it down to 3 wounds for it to be in stage 3).

 

From there, I echo the feelings regarding the forgeworld knights and having psychic support. Pack some Farseers and spiritseers as psychic support will not only help crack annoying units but also help protect against them. Fortune would be a go-to for a pseudo "medic" farseer Paired with guide, with another bringing doom and guide. However spiritseers would be a luxury bring since their buff powers don't work on the knights and their debuff half is likely to not matter too much thus their only benefit is being beacons among enemy units getting too close to help remove the problem (though if you do bring them, you could tone it down to just a warlock conclave to make use of the range double stratagem and make them another spotter unit with Jinx to help deal with annoying invulnerable saves).

 

The webway knights are certainly a good go-to if you can, might even be an idea also to bring one melee knight just so you have the invulnerable knight being the only target on deck so the deep strikers always get the first move (and you can also attempt to hide some of your psychic powers in the webway too).

[Marshal Wolfhart]

Spiritseers will be a boon with the reroll 1s, also I'd imagine you'd want some rangers to fluffyly identify and relay targets (read: hold objectives and create no deepstrike zones ).

Key psychic powers imo are fortune (not so much as Ulthwé), protect, doom. So one farseer shoudl suffice, add Ulthwé warlord trait to get some cp to maybe replenish wounds when brackets drop.

I like the notion of having a melee knight to throw in the enemy's face, especially with protect or frotune. Skathach Wraithknights have some solid anti horde options that the army otherwise would lack (i'd recommend scatterlasers on all shoulders to compensate, you have enough quality of attacks in stomps)

Don't expect to go head to head with the mean lists out there, Karhedron has it right on the points costs and stuff. Also don't go Iyanden for efficiency, it's a shame for fluff reasons, but Ulthwé's trait will keep your brackets up just as long, while keeping you actually alive longer.

[Captain Coolpants]

Hmm I dunno. To get the most bodies you could fit 4 knights, but its just deciding on what to bring. If you go all sword/shield with double shuriken cannons, you have 112pts left over.

 

If you do double sword build and double wraithcannon/scatter build. You only have 22pts left over.

 

If you wanted to avoid close range and focus on shooting but again, maximising on bodies. You could fit 3 wraithcannon knights with 1 sword knight, each with 1 extra gun coming in at only 2pts under.

 

 

If you're thinking forgeworld skathatch knights, you'll only be able fit 3 or 1 with 3 sword knights. The only skathatch id ever bother with is the dual inferno lance, deepstrike it within 12" and you're in melta range.